I used to think that I lived in a country with laws that protected all citizens equally. Yesterday we published on The BFD evidence that, when it comes to discriminating against people based on their race, the law has made an exception: to allow discrimination on the basis of race as long as the races discriminated against are not Maori or Pasifika.
The above example alone proves that NZ law allows racial discrimination against the majority of New Zealand citizens because of their ethnicity.
The government’s proposed new hate speech laws are even worse since not only do they discriminate, they paint a large target on the backs of the majority of New Zealand citizens.
By creating ‘protected groups’ who cannot be insulted, criticised or racially abused, the law fails to protect the majority from insults, criticism or racial abuse.
This will result in an egregious situation where persons of races (A) and (B) doing the exact same thing will result in (A) serving a prison term of three years but (B) not even having to go to court.
The most obvious examples will be racism against Pakeha. Already when we point it out we are told that it is not possible for Pakeha to suffer from racism because Pakeha are ‘privileged’ and only approved minority victim groups can suffer from racism.
We can be sure that Pakeha will not be one of the government’s approved victim groups so there will be no legal protection provided for Pakeha by the proposed new hate speech laws.
This means that hatred will be able to be ‘incited’ against Pakeha and “incitement to discriminate” will also be tolerated. (Let’s face it, Pakeha are already being discriminated against in the workforce with the blessing of and at the instigation of the government).
Only minority groups will have power in the new hate speech law scenario. They will be able to hate Pakeha and discriminate against Pakeha and all other non-protected groups such as heterosexuals and men as much as they like.
The majority will have zero protection and the minority will be able to drag people into court not caring if they win or not, as the process is the punishment.
The concept of protected groups is anti-democratic as it protects the few not the many. I am completely against the hate speech laws but if they are to be implemented then they should protect everyone equally.
The cynic in me says that the decision to only protect the few is a deliberate one. Those creating this disgusting anti-freedom law know full well that if they don’t exclude the majority from the protection of this law the people who will end up in court the most will be people from their favoured minority groups.
From where I sit the hatred and bigotry most visible in our society today comes from the radical activists within minority groups. By protecting these groups and giving them bulletproof status they are going to be given the power to attack the majority without mercy.
And they will.